Beacon Hill Park, in Victoria, British Columbia, is a spectacular publicly owned 154* acre property with a rich and fascinating history. This website presents a detailed chronological history of the Park from 1842 through 2009.
Two cultures in turn -- aboriginal and European -- shaped the landscape. The history begins with how the first inhabitants, the Lekwungen, used the land. Particular attention is given to original habitat features of the Park before white settlement in order to track later changes. When the first white immigrants arrived, Hudson’s Bay Company goals and strategies as well as British colonization policies became part of the Park’s history.
Beacon Hill Park was granted in Trust to the City of Victoria in 1882. The majority of this history records park developments, habitat changes, events, and controversies during the 127 years of City control from 1882 through 2009.
Click on the links below to select chapters and special features on Beacon Hill Park.
Adjacent to Beacon Hill Park on the Dallas Road waterfront are two separate city parks, Clover Point
to the east and Holland Point to the west. The following link goes to the histories of those two parks:
We invite you to visit a small website highlighting heritage and art features on Victoria's sidewalks and streets. In a series of short photo-stories, we focus on unique "hidden in plain sight" city features usually overlooked by residents and visitors. Topics include mechanical clocks, Broad Street art and codes, sidewalk prisms, Waddington Alley, hitching posts, ceramic tile street names, manhole covers and old Fort Victoria mooring rings. Explore the site by clicking on the following link:
*154 acres is the approximate area available for park use. The City of Victoria's official Beacon Hill Park area figure is 183.147 acres; that includes about thirty acres of park land buried under city streets. For more details on the park's boundaries and how park acreage is used, click on "Beacon Hill Park Maps," listed above, then select "Beacon Hill Park Acres and Boundaries."
Janis Ringuette began researching and writing this history in 2002. Norm Ringuette created the website and is chief photographer.
Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Janis Ringuette. Limited excerpts are permitted but please credit the author.
Beacon Hill Park, in Victoria, British Columbia, is a spectacular publicly owned 154* acre property with a rich and fascinating history. This website presents a detailed chronological history of the Park from 1842 through 2009.